The Adventures of Toby the Ta-Ta Tumor

Pre-op appointments are now complete, and I have been thoroughly educated on Toby's eviction plan.  Lots of information booklets to read through but all of it written in a way that makes it easy to understand. Toby must know that his days a numbered as the little bugger has been kicking up a fuss for the past week or so.  Joke's on him, though. Pack your bags, Toby - you are moving out in 12 days! I have to say, I am very impressed with how streamlined this whole process has been to date, and how responsive everyone on my healthcare team has been.  It has really helped calm some of my anxiety about my diagnosis.  It is so unfortunate that the public only hears the horror stories of our healthcare system and not all of the good things that happen.  My experience has been so positive that I want to shout it from the roof-tops.   I am also deeply touched and humbled with the amount of support and well-wishes I have received from family, friends and collea...

So there is now a plan in place to move Toby out! My initial appointment was at the Juravinski Cancer Centre yesterday.  I met with an oncology nurse first who took my complete medical history, etc.,  and then the surgical oncologist who will be heading up my care. In terms of breast cancer, my plan is on the positive side.  I am scheduled for a lumpectomy and the removal of 4 to 5 sentinel lymph nodes.  The timing is very quick - surgery is scheduled for three weeks today on September 8. The surgeon is confident that she can get all of Toby evicted.  If any of his minions are out and about scouting for new digs, it will show up in the sentinel node pathology report and the proper treatment plan can be put in place to alienate the invasion.  Treatments will start about 5 weeks post-surgery, once I have healed up and all of the pathology reports are in.  My healthcare team will thoroughly review everything and determined the best course of action. ...

 So, this happened: Sunday, August 1, 2021, was the 13th anniversary of the day my mother passed away from a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor with a secondary instance of colon cancer.  Ironically, it was also the day I discovered that Toby the Ta-Ta Tumor had taken up residence in my left breast. Thankfully, diagnostics moved quickly the following week with a mammogram, ultrasound and core biopsy.  After a weeks' wait on the biopsy results, on Saturday, August 14, I received confirmation of breast cancer and got to know Toby on an even more intimate level.  Toby is 2.5 cm in size and has spiculated (spiky) margins.  The preliminary reports show that he is an early stage of breast cancer known as Ductal Carcinoma In Situ ("DCIS").  Fortunately, this type of early cancer is very treatable and has a 95% success rate of no return cancer within 5 years.  Okay - great!  I can deal with that.  However, Toby does show a few anomalies, which are a...